Juxtaposition

The definition of juxtaposition is to place side by side for comparison or contrast. Here, the clouds and the tree are placed near one another for exactly this reason. We immediately compare the two. Are they alike? Or different?

Including just the two subject matters with only negative space to separate them moves our minds to find a way to make them fit. So how do they fit? By shape or contrast? Perhaps the answer is yes.

I decided to take this image into photoshop to add a layer of colour and texture over-top. As a result the contrast in the "colour" of the subject matter (black vs white) is accentuated but so is the comparison of form. Interestingly, the colour of the cloud, or non-colour, is echoed in the lights of the tree, encouraging our mind to again compare and see how they fit alongside each other and together.

I used f/5 and a shutter speed of 1/1250.

We long to make things fit and if they do not, we tend to find a way to exclude. Rather than looking deeper for similarities or including the differences, if it takes too much work, we might just give up.

Images such as this can challenge my default thinking patterns.